Another Reason to Reject Issue 2: The Election-Day Absentee Loophole

I should have caught this way sooner than I did, but it took a conversation with someone else to bring out the significance and danger of one particular sentence in Issue 2.

Here is the official ballot language of Issue 2 (bold in final sentence of second paragraph is mine):
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To adopt Section 6 of Article XVII of the Constitution of the State of Ohio.

In order to expand to all electors the choice to vote by absentee ballot in all elections, this amendment would:
• Provide that any person qualified to vote in an election is entitled during the thirty-five days prior to the election to receive and to cast a ballot by mail or in person at the county board of elections or additional location designated by the board. No reason for casting such a ballot shall be required. When a ballot is mailed to an elector, the county board of elections shall also provide a pre-addressed, postage pre-paid envelope for returning the ballot to that county board of elections.
• An elector to whom a ballot has been mailed, but which has not been received by the issuing county board of elections prior to the election, may cast a provisional ballot on election day. If the elector’s first ballot is received by the tenth day following the election, the provisional ballot shall not be counted. A ballot which is received by the issuing board by mail no later than the tenth day following the election shall be treated as timely cast if it contains a postmark not later than the day of the election.

A majority yes vote is necessary for passage.

(end of ballot language)
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In the current system, absentee ballots must be received by Election Day. All such ballots are tabulated and included in election results as soon as the polls close.

The sentence I bolded in the ballot language of Issue 2 changes this completely, and for the worse. It is a loophole that will throw the results of close elections into up to 10 days of uncertainty. Even more troubling, it gives those who are attempting to commit election fraud the ability to attempt to change an election result after the polls close.

Here are the problems:

1. Some post office locations are open on Election Day after the polls close.I hope everyone would agree that anyone who hasn’t voted by the time the polls close shouldn’t get to vote, even as an absentee.

   But Issue 2 would legalize absentee voting after the polls close, and even after election results are reported! It would give absentees up to a 4-1/2 hours to vote after the polls close in Ohio (7:30 PM), and 2-3 hours after “final” results are usually reported by the county election boards. It gives both sides in a close race the ability to spend the evening of Election Day chasing down absentee voters who didn’t turn in their ballots to influence what should be an already settled result. But the results of close races won’t really BE settled any more, as the winner will have to endure the absurdity of at least a few days of post-election absentee ballot counting before knowing for sure that he or she has won.

   There are plenty of post offices you could visit to mail absentee ballots after the polls have closed. I found four, and there are probably more. There is a 24-hour post office in Columbus. Cleveland has one that is open until midnight. The post office at the Cincinnati Airport is open 24 hours (couldn’t find link). Although not indicated at the link, the Detroit post office that is less than one hour from Toledo is also open 24 hours.

2. The Post Office’s controls over putting postmark dates on letters in general, and therefore absentee ballots in particular, are not adequate. Under the current system, an absentee ballot has to be in the possession of the Board of Elections by Election Day, or it doesn’t count. It’s possible that some ballots that come in after that were theoretically mailed in time, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles–if you want your vote to count, you should mail it by the Friday before Election Day, or you’re taking an undue risk. I fail to see how this places an undue burden on anyone.

   Issue 2 opens up the possibility of postmark date manipulation at the Post Office, and assumes that controls over postmark dates are airtight. The trouble is, they aren’t (or maybe Issue 2’s supporters know postal controls are inadequate, and want the opportunity to commit future election fraud).

   I had a conversation about this with a postal employee at the Cincinnati Airport Branch. He told me the following:

   • The current day is “normally” used as the postmark date until 9PM. After that, an item is “normally” postmarked with the next day’s date. But the 9PM rule is not hard and fast, and is not enforced consistently.
   • The postmark stamp that a postal clerk uses is adjustable, meaning that the clerk, if he or she wishes, could backdate an item received at the counter a day or two after the election, throw it in with the rest of the day’s mail, and most likely have the backdating go undetected.
   • Metered mail is supposed to be rejected if it contains a backdated postmark, but may not always be.

   Boards of Elections therefore have no way of knowing for sure that an absentee ballot was completed on or before Election Day (and under Issue 2, ballots completed on Election Day after the polls close would be legal and valid). Further, because of weak postmark controls at the Post Office, they won’t know for sure, and will have no way to verify, whether the absentee ballot was mailed on a timely basis in accordance with the law. The Issue 2 regime will force them to count any “properly” postmarked votes that trickle in during the 10 days after the election.

3. Other probably allowable delivery methods can be used for sending absentee ballots after the polls close.The ballot language doesn’t address delivery of ballots by couriers like UPS, Fedex, or DHL, but there is no reason to believe that County Boards of Elections could reject them.

   Again, timing is a problem (or an “opportunity,” if your intent is to enter votes after the polls have closed). To name just two examples: The DHL/Airborne facility in Sharonville, north of Cincinnati, has a final pickup time of 10:30 PM. The DHL/Airborne facility in Wilmington accepts items for delivery until 1AM the next morning, and considers any item given to them between midnight and 1AM to have been received the previous day.

   The “good news” is that backdating is almost impossible, from what I can tell, because of the detailed tracking the courier services employ, and because of their on-time delivery guarantee promises. Even if a significant amount of backdating somehow occurred, the refunds that would be triggered would raise red flags.

I see no defensible reason for the change in the absentee ballot deadline that is a part of Issue 2. Issue 2 would require us to trade in a system that at least borders on being modern for one that might have been more appropriate in the horse-and-buggy era. Over and above the no-excuse-needed absentee balloting it would permit (discussed previously here), it should be rejected because it delays the reporting of final results and opens up the possibility of absentee ballot fraud.

I’m left thinking that the Reform Ohio Now folks thought they could slip this past everybody in hopes of manipulating future election results using the methods just described. Anyone with a better explanation is welcome to try to provide one.